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Ashton Hayward
In November, the Pensacola mayor issued a press release announcing his support of Governor Rick Scott’s proposal to create a new $250 million Florida Enterprise Fund. The fund has faced opposition in the Legislature, but Scott did give Hayward props in his State of the State speech for the endorsement, along with Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, Ft. Myers Mayor Randy Henderson and Apalachicola Mayor Van Johnson.

Don Gaetz
Knowing that his ethic reforms would meet opposition in the state legislature, the state senator submitted two bills. The first one failed to win approval of the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee, but the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee passed the second, more detailed bill. Meanwhile, the Florida House passed unanimously the companion reform bill. Gaetz told Inweekly that several more hurdles must be crossed before the bill becomes law.

Barry Manilow
The songwriter and musician’s charity, the Manilow Music Project, has donated a Yamaha piano to launch a local music instrument drive for the Escambia County School District. Anyone who donates a new or gently-used musical instrument to the Pensacola Bay Center box office one week prior to show date will receive two free tickets for Manilow’s Jan. 28 show.

Losers OPEC
Oil prices are at the lowest level in more than six years. Last month, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries set aside its output quota, a target it had failed to meet for over a year and a half. The lifting of economic sanctions against Iran will further flood the crude oil market, driving prices below $30 per barrel.

Donald ‘Chip’ Pugh
The wanted Ohio man who police say sent them a selfie because he didn’t like his mugshot was arrested last week in Century. Pugh was wanted on a failure to appear warrant in Lima, Ohio. When he sent police a selfie with the caption: “Here is a better photo, that one is terrible,” the Lima PPD released Pugh’s selfie on its Facebook page. An anonymous tip led to his capture.

Florida’s Death Penalty
The U.S. Supreme Court has invalidated the way people in Florida are sentenced to death. Florida law required juries to make recommendations to judges regarding the death penalty after considering aggravating and mitigating circumstances, with judges ultimately imposing the sentences. The 8-1 ruling said juries, not judges, should be responsible for imposing the death penalty. To do otherwise equates to an unconstitutional violation of the Sixth Amendment right to a trial by jury, according to the Justices.